Opening in theatres today is David Leaf’s documentary, The US vs John Lennon. The film details the evolution of John Lennon from one of rock n’ roll’s innovators as a member of the Fab Four to his emergence as political activist.

The Beatles were part of our early years, and in some ways we grew up alongside John Lennon, maturing from pop culture to social consciousness as the boomer generation that was going to change the world. John traded on his Beatle name and fame to bring attention to political and social issues.

John’s awareness of social and class distinctions in society often led to his expressing his views in humor that was at once disarming but with an undertone of cynicism and sarcasm. Performing at the Royal Variety Show in 1963, in the presence of members of British royaly, John advised the audience, “Those of you in the cheaper seats can clap your hands. The rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.”

The film chronicles the efforts of the government to deport John, and his struggles to stay in the country. The conservative government saw him as an undesirable, his anti-war protests and music too influential. John eventually won the battle and his green card. Strangely it was not long after that John retreated from the spotlight to become a househusband and raise his son, Sean.

John re-emerged from his self-exile in 1975 to record the Double Fantasy album, but in the final irony, this proponent of peace and love again had his name and fame used, but this time it was by a madman who shot him to achieve some maniacal fantasy of legendary status of his own. John Lennon died on December 8, 1980.

So much history was crammed into his short life, so many lives changed forever by the music, the lyrics, the ideas and the tragedy. Although the murder was witnessed, the inevitable conspiracy theories arise and have fingered everyone from then president Ronald Reagan to J. Edgar Hoover (from his grave apparently) orchestrating the death of John Lennon. I think that, for those of us who remember the early days, the end is too depressing to live through again.

Walk through the mall today and you may feel transported back to the sixties. The shops are selling macramé belts and handbags, leather bracelets, dangle earrings in the shape of peace signs and lava lamps.

The young people who pass by you could have gone to high school or college with you. Suddenly, you feel as you haven’t for years – comfortable in a world of the familiar. Tie-dye shirts and platform shoes are everywhere. Gone are the shaven-head convict hairstyles of the last few years. The young men passing you have left their locks gloriously unshorn.

Even haute couture has reached its fingers back into time for this year’s fashion trends with the trapeze dress, the swing coat and the poncho coming back into style. It is just as it was then, when you were coming of age in the late sixties and early seventies. The designers went mod, the boutiques went hippie and you got to wear some of both.

What’s missing is something intangible, a feeling or perhaps an attitude. These kids are engaging in fashion trends whereas the hippies were engaging in a movement of anti-fashion.

No matter, times change. The world changes and what we perceive to be our role in it changes along with both the world and our age. Maturity brings a different perspective than we had when we were young. Then full of hope and energy, we were ready to take on the establishment and change the world for the better.

We were going home to lock ourselves in our rooms and listen to the music that made our parents cringe on turntables that spun 12″ vinyl records. They are listening to music that makes their parents cringe on portable MP3 players and IPods as they stroll through the mall.

Maybe it isn’t really all that different. We were concerned about the environment and nuclear proliferation and war in a far-off land. They live under the cloud of reports of global warming, rogue states with nuclear capabilities and war in a far-off land.

I, for one, am just glad to see the world looking familiar again.